The Fiddlers Three in Castlefields, Runcorn, is among three pubs whose freehold interests are owned by Halton Borough Council. (Image: Stuart Bogg/Trinity Mirror)

Share

Get daily updates directly to your inbox

Thank you for subscribing!

Could not subscribe, try again laterInvalid Email

A PRESSURE group has revealed a list of assets it says are owned by Halton Borough Council including three pubs.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance (TPA) said the local authority is also the proprietor of four farms, one golf course, 24 car parks, a leisure centre, one shopping centre and an industrial park.

Halton Council said the alehouses it owns are on The Croft in Halton Lodge, The Fiddlers Three in Castlefields, and The Old Transporter in The Brow, all Runcorn.

A spokesman said the local authority only holds the freehold interests, which were inherited from Runcorn Development Corporation and that breweries built them in the 1970s.

However, the local authority disputed other aspects of the TPA’s list.

A council spokesman said it owns two leisure centres – at Kingsway in Widnes and Brookvale in Runcorn, and that it only owns one farm, Newstead Farm, which was left over from the days of Cheshire County Council and is ‘more of a livery yard these days’ as well as having part of it taken for a road scheme.

It also owns four industrial estates, one of which is joint owned with Pochin Ltd.

The spokesman said local authorities are banned from using asset sales for running costs.

The TaxPayers’ Alliance spared Halton Council the brunt of its ire as it named and shamed neighbourhood government bodies for owning facilities such as hotels, a taxi office, a sawmill and a car showroom and slammed them as ‘pleading poverty’.

Harry Phibbs, the TPA author who published the research data, said local authority spending has been slashed by 23.4% per person across the UK in real terms since 2010 and that councils are reducing services.

The alliance has challenged whether these cuts could be avoided by using funding from asset sales.

The TPA’s findings have been dismissed as ‘misleading’ by the Local Government Association (LGA).

An LGA spokesman said: “This is yet another misleading report from the TPA.

“Councils are banned from spending the money they make from selling their assets to pay for day-to-day services.

“Assets fund regeneration, housing and jobs for communities, improve the quality of life for residents and help keep down council tax.

“Many assets were built as part of housing developments and are integral to providing the essential shops and amenities communities rely on.

“In many cases, councils will own the land facilities are built on and not the facilities themselves.

“Councils are expected to sell £13.3bn of land and property between 2015 and 2018, more than twice Government’s proposed £6bn between 2015 and 2020.

“Councils are constantly reviewing their estates to ensure they are getting value for money for taxpayers.”

Jonathan Isaby, TPA chief executive, said: “What possible business does a council have owning a nightclub?

“It looks deeply hypocritical for councils to plead poverty as an excuse for hiking council tax when they’ve got such a huge asset portfolio.

“Local authorities should be focussed on essential services.

“The time has come for a serious discussion on what councils should, and should not, be doing – a drastic rethink which saw many of these assets returned to the private sector where some of them clearly belong would be a dramatic step towards a balanced budget and protecting taxpayers.”